Collective Medical debuts free tool to help public health response to pandemic

Collective Medical, an ADT-based care collaboration network, has rolled out new functionality to support the public health response to COVID-19 at no cost.

WHY IT MATTERS

The company’s platform and nationwide network, which covers many ports of entry into the U.S., is positioned to support regions’ and states’ ability to identify, treat, trace and analyze infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

Collective is offering this COVID-19 functionality at no charge for all existing organizations on its network. For hospitals, health plans, public health agencies and other healthcare stakeholders not yet on the network, Collective has developed a lightweight and rapidly deployable version that can be live in under a week. There will be no costs incurred by healthcare organizations for this version throughout 2020, and there will be no obligation during or after this period to continue using the system.

The network can assist public health officials track, identify and locate individuals across the country who are at risk or have been exposed to COVID-19. By leveraging the network, notifications are pushed directly into existing workflows, in real time and at the point of care. This clinically relevant information helps care teams determine which of their patients may require testing, intensive care or isolation.

ON THE RECORD

“Many COVID-19 patients have only mild symptoms or illness and they can recover without the need for hospitalization; but there will be many more that may need intensive care,” said Dr. Amit Shah, chief medical officer at Care Oregon, one of Collective’s collaborators on the rapid development of a solution to address COVID-19. “We’ve seen a growing number of cases over the past few days alone – and we expect those numbers will continue to rise. It’s incredibly important that we contain it as much as possible because there is no vaccine.

“The state of Oregon had incredible foresight when it built the statewide health IT infrastructure with Collective Medical,” Shah added. “Supporting our care teams across the state in the fight against COVID-19 is just one more example of the value of this utility.”

THE LARGER TREND

Healthcare technology and services vendors have been mobilizing to deploy solutions aimed at reducing the strain on healthcare practitioners as the outbreak continues, among them IntelyCare, which launched free virtual nurse training for COVID-19.

Orion Health released a remote patient-monitoring platform to combat COVID-19, allowing for the engagement of patients in their homes and facilitating communication between quarantined people and healthcare providers.

Alphabet’s Verily launched a website where California residents can complete a short survey regarding their current condition and, if they meet certain criteria, could be referred to a nearby mobile COVID-19 testing site.